Indian Gymnast Dipa Karmakar Says Her Target Is ‘Gold for Life’ After Missing Out at Rio Olympics

Karmakar landed the fearsome 'Produnova' in the women's vaults final

India's Dipa Karmakar competed in the women's vault event final of the Artistic Gymnastics at the Olympic Arena during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Aug. 14, 2016.
Photo:
Ben Stansall/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

In her second vault, Karmakar landed the fearsome “Produnova,” a daring gymnastics element that has been described as a “vault of death.”

The sixth gymnast to perform among the eight finalists, Karmakar was briefly second, then third, in the scores tally until Simone Biles of the U.S. arrived at the arena as the last gymnast and topped the tally, clinching the gold medal.

Maria Paseka of Russia won silver and Switzerland’s Giulia Steingruber won bronze.

A Gymnast's Death-Defying Leap to Success

Watch our interview with Dipa Karmakar, which took place before she headed for Rio.

In the Sunday’s finals, Karmakar left behind the gymnasts from China, North Korea, Uzbekistan and Canada who were all ranked above her in the qualification stage.

After her performance, 23-year-old Karmakar, who overcame flat-footedness as a child to become a gymnast, talked to her parents in the state of Tripura in India’s remote northeastern region.

“Don’t be disappointed; you did well and we are proud of you,” Dulal Karmakar, her father, said he told her over the phone.

Karmakar told her father that she would work to further improve her performance in the next Summer Olympics scheduled to be held in Tokyo in 2020, Mr. Karmakar said in a phone interview Monday.

To the Indian media who surrounded her after her Sunday’s performance in Rio, Karmakar said: “My target is gold for life.”